Children and other people with dexterity challenges may have difficulty in selecting individual pages of books that use typical paper pages. Many children's books are comprised of thick fiber or card board pages which are more easily manipulated than thin paper pages. These thick pages are also more resistant to damage, such as tearing, than their thin paged counterparts. However, young children and dexterity challenged individuals with reduced ability to distinguish between individual pages by touch still find it difficult to select individual pages in the book. The problem is exacerbated in board books because the stiff pages contribute to a vacuum forming between pages which has a tendency to cause them to stick together. There have been various attempts to address the problems with board books. However, while each of these attempts may be an improvement over a basic board book they each still have disadvantages as described below.
For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,328,206 describes a stiff-paged board book which uses spacing structures between the pages to form a space between the pages so individual pages may be turned by young children. The spacing structure includes attaching blocks to the outer portion of each page to keep the pages from completely closing. They also note that magnets can be embedded in each page to help eliminate the issue of pages sticking together. These blocks or protrusions may provide space between the pages but are unorthodox since they involve attaching something to each page. One disadvantage of the book described in this patent is the possible easy removal of the blocks. Children are prone to pull items off of pages which would eliminate the page gap, not to mention that the small parts may pose a choking hazard. Another possible issue caused by the blocks and protrusions includes the warping of the pages of the book when the book is compressed in shipping or when stacked under other books (or any other time the book has weight placed upon it). The blocks and protrusions could create indentions in the other pages when compressed which would lessen the gap between the pages. Manufacturing cost would be increased by having to affix the blocks, create protrusions, or embed magnets. Packaging costs could be increased to protect the books from being compressed. And shipping costs may be increased by the extra size of each book since each book is thicker because of the space between the pages. Also the gaps at the top and bottom of each page are not the same uniform size (the gap gets larger from the spine to the outside of the book).
U.S. Pat. No. 511,339 describes a book with pages that have a portion of each page removed on the edge of the book opposite the spine. Each removed section is of a similar shape but varying size. Each page has either an increasing or decreasing amount of the page removed than the previous page which creates layers. These layers do not create gaps between the individual pages thus require more dexterity and knowledge to use. These layers are not uniform around the entire page. To manufacture these pages requires extra work to make each page a different size and to ensure that the pages are properly ordered by shape. An increasing portion of each page is eliminated which reduces the amount of usable space on each subsequent page.
U.S. Pat. No. 648,476 describes an index book to be used to index loose papers. Each page has a round stub at the edge. Each of these stubs is in a different location than the preceding and following page to create a tab for identification. As previously cited in U.S. Pat. No. 511,339 these tabs do not create a gap between the pages and they are limited to one small tab on each page. Sight and depth perception are necessary to determine which tab is connected to the next page.
Other patents dealing with page construction include U.S. Pat. Nos. 283,383; 306,318; 1,311,733; and 1,404,541. These patents attempt to accomplish the same goals as U.S. Pat. Nos. 511,339 and 648,476 described above, which is to identify pages or sections of books. They attempt this by removing parts of each subsequent page or by cutting out segmental recesses in different sections. Each exposed page or segmental recesses can be labeled to identify the section. These are implemented to visually index each section of a book. They do not create gaps between the pages for easy selection of each page by those with limited dexterity. Moreover, they suffer from similar manufacturing complexities as described above.
While the above described books may be improvements over the traditional stiff paged board-book, each of these books has disadvantages as noted above that are heretofore unresolved. Thus, there is still a need for an easily implemented page construction that provides a page that a child or other dexterity challenged individual can more easily manipulate.